


Nightmares

by pidgethepidgeon



Series: Beetlejuice Short Stories [3]
Category: Beetlejuice - All Media Types, Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Sad with a Happy Ending, Tw: Mourning, lydia really needs a hug guys, part 1 of 2, tw: mentions of death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:53:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21594892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pidgethepidgeon/pseuds/pidgethepidgeon
Summary: Lydia has been having nightmares every night and Barbara tries to comfort her
Series: Beetlejuice Short Stories [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1556005
Comments: 8
Kudos: 90





	Nightmares

It was a typical night at the Deetz-Maitland home, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, well ignoring the fact that the family was comprised of three living people and three ghosts. After dinner that evening everyone went about doing their own things, and eventually said their goodnights. Lydia had always been a sort of night owl, so nobody thought it was uncommon to hear movement in the teenager’s bedroom. Odds were she was messing around with photography, or staying up late to talk with some of her friends. The adults didn’t really seem to mind once they set in place the “no playing viola after 8 pm” rule. This night was different though. It was nearing three o’clock in the morning, by then Lydia was typically asleep, most likely passed out with whatever activity she doing still strewn over her bed. Barbara wasn’t sure why she was awake at that time either, as a ghost she really didn’t need to sleep but she and Adam still enjoyed the act of closing their eyes and relaxing for a couple of hours.

Adam was dead-asleep when what Barbara could only describe as small whimpers echoed up from the level below. She tried not to think too much about them, but they became more frequent which worried the ghost. She debated whether or not she should investigate but her thoughts were cut off by a loud, high pitched, and frantic scream coming from Lydia’s room. Without any hesitation, she grabbed the closest thing to a weapon she had and raced to the girl’s bedroom, her heart sank with worry that something bad could be happening to Lydia. 

It felt like it had taken eight million years by the time she had arrived at the door. The whimpers were quieter but still rapid. Barbara quickly turned the knob of the bedroom door and kicked away, confused, a towel that had been covering the bottom of the door. She looked around the room for the source of the danger only to find Lydia tossing and turning desperately in her bed. Her face contorted in a mixture of sadness and pain that deeply worried Barbara. She approached the bed, placing a gentle arm on the distressed child in an attempt to comfort her. It did the exact opposite as Lydia’s eyes snapped open in a daze and she started screaming. Barbara tried to signal for her to be quiet and after a few seconds of Lydia’s eyes adjusting to the darkness, her screams ceased and were replaced with pitful hiccuping sobs. 

“What happened?” Barbara asked, sitting gently on the bed

Lydia wouldn’t even meet her gaze as she tried desperately to regain some sense of composure. She felt like her chest was being crushed by an elephant and she couldn’t breathe. She felt Barbara’s hands making circles on her back and she flinched, not wanting to be touched. Sensing her discomfort Barbara stopped and moved her hand away from the girl. Her breathing was still rapid and she tried to no avail to bring oxygen into her lungs. She hated when she got like this, ever since her mother had died and the events of them all first moving in the house she had been getting awful night terrors and panic attacks. She didn’t want to worry anybody though, even though everybody told her she was allowed to come to them when she needed help. She mentally cursed at herself for not making sure the towel was wedged under the door properly. She what happened to her, but she wanted to handle it alone without it being just one more thing her family needed to worry about. It made her feel so small...so pathetic...so worthless that even after all this time she didn’t have a grip on these kinds of things. 

She realized she must have been silent for too long because Barbara was now just staring at her with those big concerned motherly eyes that always made Lydia flustered. Her skin burned hot and she knew her cheeks were a shade of crimson that contrasted her normally pale and ashen complexion. Clearing her throat she let out a creaky, “I’m okay.”

This clearly did not convince Barbara, “You didn’t sound okay. Lydia, it’s okay to talk about it. We’re here to help you.”

There it was, Lydia thought, the help you statement she knew was coming from a mile away. She wanted more than anything to just be able to deal with this on her own, she was grown by now. Fourteen years old. Too big in her mind for someone to be having a nightmare and having to run to mommy-. She cut herself off from that line of thinking, it would only make her more upset, and she just wanted Barbara to leave her alone. Let her go back to bed, and deal with all this stuff by herself. 

Barbara noticed the girl had withdrawn from the conversation. She pursed her lips as she contemplated her next move, she was a teenage girl once and she knew how desperately Lydia wanted to pretend like everything was fine even though it wasn’t. Thinking back on her childhood Barbara wished that someone had tried a little harder when she withdrew to her thoughts. She wished that someone had just been there for her like she wanted to be for Lydia. Unsure of how to get her to open up Barbara opted to simply tell her a story, “You know when I was your age I used to get really scary dreams when I was anxious. They always seemed so real, and it felt like there was nothing I could do to control them.”

“Yeah?”

She nodded, “One time I had a really important test coming up, like so important that I thought my whole life depended on me doing well. The night before the test I had a horrible nightmare that the test wasn’t even in the language I spoke and that when I got the failing grade back I just instantly went to hell.”

Lydia smiled a little and gave a giggle that was still shrouded in a hint of sadness, “No offense but that’s a really strange dream.”

“It was,” Barbara agreed, “But it felt so real to me, and I woke up scared out of my wits. I even woke my parents.”

“What did they say?”

“They asked me if something was wrong….but I said I was fine, so they left, telling me to be more courteous to the people trying to sleep.” she rolled her eyes sarcastically, “But the thing is I wasn’t fine. It seemed really stupid looking back that I had gotten myself so worked up over a test, but at that point in time it was the scariest thing I could think of.”

“How’d you do?”

“Hmm?”

“On the test,” Lydia prompted, “How’d you end up doing?”

“Oh god, beats me if I remember. I couldn’t even tell you what it was on. All I remember though was that nightmare, and spending the whole rest of the night alone, wishing someone else was there.”

Lydia pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them, she still wasn’t ready to talk about it. She knew Barbara was just trying to her to talk and while she resented the babying that Barbara often gave her, she knew deep down she was right. She didn’t want to be alone right now. She wanted someone...something. 

Barbara picked a stuffed animal up off of Lydia’s bed and held it in her hands. It was a newer looking stuffed rabbit. It had light pink fur and a white lace tutu. Something that looked completely out of place in Lydia’s normally melancholic room. Lydia glanced over at the old toy and smiled slightly.

“She kinda ruins the whole aesthetic I have going on in here, but I haven’t been able to sleep without her since-” the teenager paused, “She used to belong to my mother. It was a toy rabbit my grandmother bought her when she was in the hospital after things started to get bad. I know it seems dumb to still have it but it still smells like her.”

Lydia looked away almost as if she was ashamed of what she had just said. Barbara handed the rabbit back to her and said, “I don’t think she’s stupid at all. I think she’s rather cute.”

“Thanks,” she laughed, “you just gotta promise not to tell anyone else about her okay? I don’t want to lose my reputation around here.”

“Pinky swear. Now...do you want to tell me about what happened earlier?”

Lydia curled more tightly into herself, trying not to think about the extremely vivid dream in fear that she’d start to panic again. She felt tears welling up in her eyes and when she looked up at Barbara’s worried eyes again the dam broke and everything came pouring out at once. 

“I’m so scared of losing people,” she cried, “It started like it normally does with my mom dying. I always feel so alone, so cold, like the life was sucked out of me and there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s still like I can feel the death in her hands as she passed. When it’s that dream I usually just cry, even though I’ve played the scene over in my head a million times before I still can’t stop crying about it. I don’t think I ever will. Tonight though it was different. She...she still left me but it wasn’t just her this time.” Lydia paused, unsure if she wanted to reveal what happened in the dream next. She didn’t want to frighten Barbara, but keeping it in made the tightness in her chest return. 

“Was it your father?” Barbara guessed, “Because it’s not real sweetie, he’s right down the hall. He’s okay.”

“It’s not my dad...it’s you,” Lydia whispered so quietly that Barbara wasn’t even sure if she heard it. 

She didn’t mean to but she couldn’t help but let out a little chuckle, “Lyds, I’m already dead. I’m a ghost, and I can tell you that me and Adam aren’t going anywhere.”

Lydia shook her head, trying to clear away the tears in her eyes that threatened to spill over at any second, “I know that, but I just can’t get out of my head how it’s all my fault that you almost got exorcised. It was all my fault and everybody just forgave me! I was so scared that I couldn’t fix it, that you were going to die again and I would be alone and it would have been all my fault!” Lydia was sobbing her shoulders shaking with every pained breath she took in, “I hurt you, and I hurt everyone else too. In my dreams, I refuse to marry him and it happens. You just die and it feels like my whole world is shattering again. Everybody in that dream dies, and I’m all alone and it’s my FAULT!”

Barbara cupped the girl’s face in her hands, “Lydia, Lydia, calm down. Shhh, it’s okay. I’m here, I’m okay now and nothing is going to hurt us, alright?”

“The awful part about it isn’t just how scary it is, but how real it is.” Lydia shivered, “It could have happened. I could have said no and all of that stuff would have happened. I know he’s changed now and he’s a better person but in the moment if I had said no everybody would have been punished because of me.” 

Lydia broke down again and started to tremble. She flung herself into Barbara’s arms and just let the sobs wrack through her body. She kept trying to tell the story but the words came out like nonsense as Barbara just tried to soothe her, “You’re not alone, okay? I’m here. I’m here.” She just kept repeating that phrase as Lydia’s tense muscles slowly started to relax, and the sobs were less violent and turned back into the whimpers that alerted Barbara to the situation in the first place. 

“When I went to the Netherworld I was so scared, not because of the ghosts or anything, but because I realized how alone I was. I had nobody there to protect me, I had no idea what was happening to you guys in the living world, and every night I just wake up and feel that way all over again. It eats me up inside.”

Barbara wiped away a tear from Lydia’s face with her thumb, “Darling, why didn’t you tell someone sooner?”

“Because I didn’t deserve to be comforted.”

“That’s a lie, Lydia and you know it.”

“It’s true, I did a really terrible thing and if these nightmares are the punishment than that’s just what I’m going to have to deal with.”

“Lydia these nightmares aren’t a punishment, they’re your brain trying to work through the trama. Nobody blames you for what happened, sweetie. You’re just a kid, after all, you were going through some really rough stuff, and you still are.” Barbara tiled Lydia’s face up towards her, “You know I’m not mad at you right? I don't know if I ever explicitly told you because I always just thought it was assumed. I never blamed you for what happened, I never held a grudge, or felt resentment. A lot of crazy stuff happened that day. I don’t know if this is what you need to hear…. But even though it wasn’t your fault, I forgive you.”

With those simple words, Lydia began to bawl, muttering how she didn’t deserve the forgiveness and how she wanted Barbara to be mad and yell at her, just so she could move on. Barbara refused to yell at her though because she truly didn’t blame Lydia for what happened. She didn’t even blame BJ, she had forgiven him long ago. 

“Were you scared?” Lydia sniffled

“A little bit,” she admitted, “Mainly I was scared for you, and scared to leave you alone.”

Lydia nestled closer to Barbara, clutching the pink rabbit to her chest. Lydia shifted her position and leaned her head on Barbara’s lap, and Barbara started to stroke her hair soothingly as Lydia tried to stop the flow of tears and the feelings of guilt in her chest. 

“I’m just...so tired.” Lydia mumbled, “The pressure...the guilt...the grief, it’s just so exhausting.”

“I wish I could take it away for you, sweetie. I wish more than anything that I could wave a magic wand and make everything better for you but I can’t.”

Sleepily Lydia shrugged, “I think you’re doing pretty good.”

There was a silence as Barbara took in the words the young girl spoke, they filled her heart like a balloon and after a few seconds she whispered back, “Do you really think?”

There was no response from the girl in her lap, only the even rising and falling of Lydia’s chest having finally gotten control of her breathing. Barbara continued to run her fingers through Lydia’s short black hair, “I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing…”

She looked down at the sleeping girl in her lap once more, her mouth was parted open and the pink rabbit was still being hugged tightly by the girl who considered herself too edgy for the plush toy. She looked so peaceful when she was sleeping, finally restful with no signs of any nightmares returning. Barbara didn’t know what she was going to do all night, not daring to even attempt at moving Lydia. She wi ped away a few stray tear marks and whispered, “But I know I’m doing it really, really well.”


End file.
